Government agencies are under unending pressure to move government online so they can better serve citizens, industry, and others in government. When you consider the number of paper-based processes in place and government’s unique challenge of protecting privacy while providing access to all constituents, including citizens with disabilities, this is continues to be a daunting challenge.

It’s also a major reason why government agencies worldwide use PDF as a secure, standard means for sharing, distributing and archiving documents.

PDF files support the entire life cycle of electronic documents and forms, and PDF software such as Foxit PhantomPDF provides an effective framework for managing electronic content throughout the agency, enabling government offices to:

Distribute official documents reliably and securely

Streamline response to U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests

Simplify electronic submissions

Implement easy-to-use electronic forms (eForms)

Archive content in PDF or PDF/A

Efficiently exchange documents with government colleagues

The omnipresence of PDF and free PDF readers such as Foxit Reader makes the transition to online government processes easier, but reliable document delivery is only the start.

Since a PDF file acts as a container for digital services that travels with a document wherever it goes, the PDF standard gives government agencies modern capabilities and benefits, including:

Accessibility. PDF is universally accessible by everyone, including people with disabilities such as blindness and motor impairments. This makes compliance with regulations such as Section 508 of the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act easier.

Security. PDF provides various levels of security, including password protection, which lets government officials add a password to a PDF document to limit ability to open the file and restrict certain features; and certificate protection, which lets you secure documents by specifying unique permissions for each person.

Streamlined FOIA requests. Additional capabilities decrease the time and effort it takes to respond to citizens’ requests for information, such as FOIA inquiries. PDF archives simplify the process of finding information by letting you use keywords to quickly locate specific records.

Easy forms conversion. All existing government forms can be converted to PDF files, making them secure, interactive, and accessible by anyone with an Internet connection and a PDF reader. Doing so ensures that everyone receives the same forms whether they use online or print versions.

Searchable content. Government agencies need to record and archive just about everything they do. PDF and PDF/A are both widely used standard formats for archiving information supported by most of today’s PDF readers, such as Foxit Reader.

Government employees can and do make use of PDF across all areas of civil service, including the public library, police department, public works, city hall, city home campus, the court system, and, of course, the Office of Records, typically the branch of government most responsible for managing and archiving official documents.

Among their many tasks, government employees use PDF software such as Foxit PhantomPDF for different content management tasks such as scanning, archiving via PDF or PDF/A, converting, annotating, editing, and protecting PDF documents. In fact, while transforming scanned records into editable and searchable PDF files remains work-intensive, today it is one of the most common workflow process used by government staff.

Using PDF, many local and federal government agencies have reduced time to manage records and lowered operation costs. You can, too.